Florida Fridays; The Great 2012 Florida Trip Part 5 (Biscayne National Park)

After the Shark Valley Loop Road in Everglades National Park I continued east on the Tamiami Trail to the Florida's Turnpike Extension south to Florida City. At the end of Canal Drive I visited Biscayne National Park along Biscayne Bay.

Biscayne National Park was created in the waters of Biscayne Bay in 1980. Much of Biscayne National Park is aquatic but it does encompass some of the Florida Keys south of Key Biscayne. The push for Biscayne National Park was largely due to the prospects of development on Elliot Key. In the 1950s a plan to build a bridge from Key Biscayne to connect Elliott Key and the rest of the Florida Keys was announced by the Dade County Planning Board. This led to the incorporation of the "City of Islandia" on Elliott Key which was largely just a glorified land grab. The potential for a possibly extended Overseas Highway was largely crushed by the creation of Biscayne National Monument in 1968 which later became Biscayne National Park in 1980.

The prospects of development along Biscayne Bay and the northern Florida Keys is long dead. The City of Islandia incorporation was dissolved by the state of Florida back in 2012. Today there isn't really much going along Biscayne Bay other than people boating or attempting to fish near the mangrove ridden shoreline. For what its worth I probably would rank Biscayne as my least favorite National Park. There isn't much to do at the visitor center area and the Overseas Highway offers way more variety hopping from Key to Key southward to Key West. Even exploring the Lower Keys by boat in my opinion is much more fun than up in Biscayne National Park. I guess the distant view of downtown Miami on a clear day is nice.

Comments

Old NY 10 and Goodman Mountain in the Adirondacks

Old highway alignments come in all shapes and sizes, as well as taking some different forms after their lifespan of serving cars and trucks has ended. In the case of an old alignment of what was NY 10 south of Tupper Lake, New York, part of the old road was turned into part of a hiking trail to go up Goodman Mountain. At one time, the road passed by Goodman Mountain to the east, or Litchfield Mountain as it was known at the time. As the years passed, sometime around 1960, the part of NY 10 north of Speculator became part of NY 30, and remains that way today from Speculator, past Indian Lake and Tupper Lake and up to the Canadian Border. At one time, the highway was realigned to pass the Goodman Mountain to the west, leaving this stretch of road to be mostly forgotten and to be reclaimed by nature. During the summer of 2014, a 1.6 mile long hiking trail was approved the Adirondack Park Agency to be constructed to the summit of the 2,176 foot high Goodman Mountain. For the first 0.9 mi

Oregon State Highway 58

Also known as the Willamette Highway No. 18, the route of Oregon State Highway 58 (OR 58) stretches some 86 miles between US 97 north of Chemult and I-5 just outside of Eugene, Oregon. A main route between the Willamette Valley region of Oregon with Central Oregon and Crater Lake National Park, the highway follows the Middle Fork Willamette River and Salt Creek for much of its route as it makes its way to and across the Cascades, cresting at 5,138 feet above sea level at Willamette Pass. That is a gain of over 4,500 in elevation from where the highway begins at I-5. The upper reaches of OR 58 are dominated by the principal pinnacle that can sometimes be seen from the highway, Diamond Peak, and three nearby lakes, Crescent, Odell and Waldo (Oregon's second largest lake). OR 58 is chock full of rivers, creeks, mountain views, hot springs and waterfalls within a short distance from the highway. OR 58 was numbered as such by the Oregon State Highway Department in 1940. OR 58 is a del

Siuslaw River Bridge - US 101 in Florence, Oregon

As the Oregon Coast Highway (US 101) was being completed across the State of Oregon during the 1930s, a number of bridges needed to be built to cross some of the state's finest rivers. In Florence, Oregon , the Siuslaw River Bridge was designed and constructed to help fill in the gaps between different coastal communities. Built in 1936, the Siuslaw River Bridge is a bascule bridge flanked by two reinforced concrete arches that spans across the Siuslaw River. The bridge and the river get their names from the Siuslaw tribal people who make their home along the river valleys of this part of the Oregon Coast. Today, the bridge provides a vital link connecting US 101 and the Central Oregon Coast to points north and south. The total length of the Siuslaw River Bridge is 1,568 feet, stretching across the river. But more specifically, the bridge is made up of a north approach with eight spans of reinforced concrete deck girder totaling 478 feet in length. There is a main span in three